Effect of risperidone on sleep in schizophrenia: a comparison with haloperidol

Yamashita, Hidehisa; Morinobu, Shigeru; Yamawaki, Shigeto; Horiguchi, Jun; Nagao, Masatsugu

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Volume 109, Issue 2 , Pages 137-142, 15 March 2002

Effect of risperidone on sleep in schizophrenia: a comparison with haloperidol

Hidehisa Yamashita
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Hiroshima University School of Medicine, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) of Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), Tokyo, Japan
Shigeru Morinobu
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Hiroshima University School of Medicine, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) of Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), Tokyo, Japan
Shigeto Yamawaki
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Hiroshima University School of Medicine, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) of Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), Tokyo, Japan
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-82-257-5208; fax: +81-82-257-5209
Jun Horiguchi
- Department of Psychiatry, Shimane Medical University, Shimane, Japan
Masatsugu Nagao
- Nagao Mental Hospital, Nagao, Japan

Received 27 April 2001; received in revised form 2 January 2002; accepted 16 January 2002.

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to determine the effect of the atypical antipsychotic drug, risperidone on sleep measures in patients with schizophrenia by polysomnography. Sleep measures were compared in five schizophrenic patients who were receiving risperidone alone and five schizophrenic patients who were receiving haloperidol alone. There were no differences between these two groups in their demographic characteristics or doses of antipsychotic medication. The slow wave sleep period was significantly longer in the risperidone-treated group than in the haloperidol-treated group. There were, however, no other significant differences in sleep variables between these groups. This difference in the effect on sleep between risperidone and haloperidol may be due to their differential actions on serotonin (5-HT₂) receptors. Risperidone, which is known to be a serotonin-dopamine antagonist, has the potential to improve the quality of sleep in schizophrenic patients.

Keywords: Slow wave sleep, Polysomnography, Serotonin, Dopamine, Risperidone, Haloperidol